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I was fortunate enough to sit down with Will Dean, founder and CEO of Tough Mudder. For anyone who’s been living under a rock these past four years, Tough Mudder is the enormously popular endurance event series which launched in obscurity in 2010 and has since gone on to attract over 1.3 million participants and is today valued at $70 million.

I asked Will about coming to work in the U.S., his meteoric success, and his top five tips on starting a successful company.

Dan Simon: As a fellow Brit, I’m interested in hearing how you came to start working in America?

Will Dean: I came here to get my MBA and there are a lot of good things about Harvard but it is such a bubble. You may be living in the states studying American businesses but you aren’t interacting very much. I think there was a personal interest in sticking around longer and really seeing America properly.

Additionally, there is a simple economic part to it – America is a far bigger market. When people talk about the ease of doing business often you see metrics on how easy it is to set up a business. All that is relevant but there’s something more than that. There is a positive attitude that I found so much more encouraging and inviting. Certainly when you are smaller you feel it; people say “good for you,” “well done,” “best of luck,” rather than “why are you doing that? Your parents must be worried!”

Simon: What do you think you tapped into to achieve such success so quickly?

Dean: There are a few things that have helped us succeed. Firstly, there is the basic human desire to prove and challenge oneself and we provide that with something tangible. Additionally there is the social currency aspect; people know what Tough Mudder is. People have heard of us and will know what you are talking about if you say you have completed a Tough Mudder as opposed to a race where you climbed up mountains and swam through icy water. Social currency is so vital in the age of social media; pictures of people running through flames are exciting and, importantly, shareable. Thirdly, I think we have tapped into a 30-year trend in fitness. Lastly, there is a lot of talk about the current generation (the social generation) and their focus on experience. We say internally, “Experience is a Luxury Item’. Tough Mudder is all about team and doing something as a group – and this is what makes us so different from marathons and triathlons. Other brands like Crossfit tap in to these trends also. We joke that if Crossfit is the church then Tough Mudder is the cathedral . You go to Crossfit every week and it becomes part of your routine, but when you go to a Tough Mudder it is this enormous and absolutely riveting experience.

Simon: How much was in the business plan from day one versus looking back and realizing you stumbled upon it?

Dean: The basic elements were there in terms of creating a team challenge that also uses social media. I’ll be the first to admit I had no idea there were going to be so many other people that felt that way. A lot of businesses start with an insight which essentially is “I have a problem” or “I would buy this product and other people might also need it”. However, if you had told me there were 800,000+ people a year that think like me I would have been really surprised.

Simon: What was the problem you saw that you set out to fix?

Dean: Problem may not be the right word. A big issue I have is that when you run a marathon, one of the first questions you’ll get is about your time. “What was your time?” To most people, I think simply completing the race is accomplishment enough, but you inevitably get compared to others based on time. My inspiration came while doing a triathlon. The zipper jammed on my wetsuit and I asked another guy in transition to help and he said no because he was focused on his time. Keep in mind this was not an event either of us were about to win! I believe being so focused on time creates unhealthy behavior. I wanted something that was team driven; I had done a marathon with friends but aside from starting and crossing the finish line together, we were separate and it felt meaningless. I didn’t think there was a problem until someone pointed it out. The opportunity was there because I thought people were under-served by what existed.

Simon: How did you build Tough Mudder to become such a recognizable brand?

Dean: I realized if you look at the events space, there tends to be both a network and first-mover effect. Looking at Ironman in the distance triathlon space, people pay a premium because Ironman is the real thing. You get momentum and then have a network effect. People will ask me if I think we are a fitness fad. I can’t prove we’re not a fad but we are not a fitness business. We don’t say Tough Mudder will get you fit. They are challenging and running around obviously will help you burn calories but Tough Mudder is not a fitness business in the classic sense of the word.